stolen laptops at clarion west

This morning someone came into the Clarion West house where we're staying and stole four laptops, some bags, clothing, and possibly other items.

Of course, these are our lives, especially right now.

We are all okay, and the house is secure, even more so now, but I would like to ask the SFF community for help.

Those who lost their laptops will not be able to replace these without detriment to their financial situation. These are essential for our writing, particularly over the next four weeks.

If you would like to help donate laptops or funds to those students who had their laptops stolen, please contact Leslie or Neile at infoATclarionwestDOTorg. More donation information may be forthcoming.

My husband and I have two Mac laptops we will gladly lend for the duration of the workshop. We're in New York but can certainly ship them out there. I wish we could just donate them but unfortunately that's not an option for us. Please let me know whether any of the students whose laptops were stolen would be willing to take loaners while you scare up replacements or funds.

I have a spare laptop but shipping it from Korea seems, er, silly, considering the expense, since that money could be donated towards replacing the original machines. Please do post on how we can help in that way once you have a system figured out. (Since I imagine insurance isn't going to cover most of the PCs...)

This is terrible, Maggie. I hope that the thief gets caught and the laptops retrieved, but barring that, I hope that the affected writers get help so that their time spent at Clarion is not wasted. I've just blogged about this, and it looks as if most of the rest of the blogosphere has as well.